Acoustic Cover Songs & Original Music Video Blog

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Welcome to the Laptop Sessions music video blog! Here, you'll find cover songs, original music, & music reviews updated every weekday! We hope you enjoy the acoustic covers, free mp3s, chords, tabs, and music reviews here on the site!

Tonight, another event in my ongoing tribute entitled, “Steven Page, we hardly knew ye.” Steven Page leaving Barenaked Ladies has been traumatic for me, musically. It’s like if John left the Beatles and the band went on without him. They’d still be a great band with three songwriters, singers, and musicians, but you would always wonder if they’ll ever get back together, etc…

At first, I likened Steven Page leaving Barenaked Ladies after 20 years to Brian Wilson taking a self-inflicted leave from the Beach Boys starting in late 1967. But, I then realized that Page leaving BNL is much worse in a way, but better in another.

You see, when Brian Wilson stopped making music with the Beach Boys on a regular basis (and being the producer), the other Boys (Carl, Dennis, Mike, Al, and Bruce) hadn’t really been accomplished songwriters yet. I mean, it took them until 1968 to really put together an album and it definitely sounds like a first effort in many ways. We were all just lucky to discover five brilliant songwriters behind Brian Wilson. In many ways, for me, Brian recessing in the Beach Boys contributes to my love of the band because, well, they really became a band after that. You had five songwriting members that played instruments and sang and went out and played concerts- that incarnation of the Beach Boys is almost unsurpassed, for me.

With Steven Page, he leaves the band with three accomplished songwriters (especially Ed Robertson, with a #1 single in “One Week” under his belt) and some fine singers, to boot. So, BNL has a bit of a head-start. In fact, there shouldn’t be too much of a hiccup, other than Page’s recent flurry of depressing songs and over-the-top oparetta vocals.

The thing that makes Page’s absence worse is that, at least for the forseeable future, it’s permanent. With the Beach Boys, Brian was always still around in some form. He always contributed at least one song to every album, even if they had to dig it up and force him to complete it. Fans would always hope for the next Brian Wilson gem and it was comforting to know he was there, readying himself for a possible comeback that never really came. Of course, I say this like I was there- I wasn’t even alive until after Brian’s amazingly talented brother Dennis died- I’m just speaking from what I’ve read in the past.

So, after that whole explanation, I’m really trying to say that I’m having a hard time getting over the restructuring of my second-all-time favorite band. Tonight’s video is a little tribute to Steven Page.

“Shoe Box” (which I always thought was “Shoebox”) was a single and had its own EP (with includes a decent song in “Trust Me’) and served as a bridge between the style of the first three albums and the albums to follow (starting with “Stunt”). The song was also on “Born On A Pirate Ship” in a much more subdued tone, much to that version’s detriment. The rockin’ single version is my choice, and that’s what I did my video after. How can you tell them apart? Well, the album verison just starts off with the instruments and vocals at the same time. The single goes through the chord progression before Steven Page starts in.

Listen to the words closely on this one- a very interesting message to it. Also, you may have to look up the words, as it took Chris and I about five years to realize that he’s not saying, “And Rumplestiltskin side my shoe box!” and is in fact saying, “When talk turns to single malts and Stilton and my shoe box!” Who would’ve thought?

Okay- a long post tonight to make up for last week. Tomorrow night, I have a BIG announcement about my new album and that just means more work for me. So, you’ll have to stay tuned until another all-new Original Wednesday comes your way! Have a great night and I’ll catch you all tomorrow!

Welcome to your Terrific Tuesday edition of the Laptop Sessions! Tonight, I’m the first person to post using our brand new WordPress 2.6.1 version of the blog. Of course, on your end, you shouldn’t see any difference, but on our end, the difference is vast…and great. For one thing, our visual editor won’t mess with our code anymore, so we’ll be able to post chords to our cover songs more often than before.

Also, things seem to work a little better now, so I hope our sitemap and the live site will work a bit smoother than before. If not, we don’t have much of an option but to upgrade, but honestly, we don’t have the money for that right now. Did I mention that there’s a donation button on the left side bar? Right now, we have a package that’s only about $5 a month. In order to get “server priority” as they call it…which I assume means more server resources, the price goes up to $20 a month. That’s quite a difference for “server priority”. But, I do believe that it will help keep the site running quickly, as we already have over 500 posts and hundreds upon hundreds of pages. I hope many people will come to our site’s aid and give us a donation! Oh, and that includes you, too, Jeff, Mike, Becky, Sarah, Chris, Dana, Dave, Alberto, Matt, Stuffy, Palumbi, et al.

Okay, on to tonight’s video. Tonight is a classic one in terms of my live performances. The “band” of Chris, Jim, and Becky (see Chris’ post a few days ago) was formed in 2004 and we loved to sing this Barenaked Ladies song, “Maybe Katie” in concert. Then, we didn’t realize we were singing it in the wrong key- a half step below the original key. Rest assured that for this video, we fixed the error, as all the Laptop Sessions songs are always in the original key- the ONLY way it should be! Listen up, cover song musicians on YouTube and elsewhere: YOU REALLY STINK IF YOU DO IT IN THE WRONG KEY!!! There’s no exception to this- if it’s out of your range and you change the key, then you don’t deserve to do the song. I sang “Baby Please Come Home” by Darlene Love at our Christmas party in the original key and that song is ridiculously high. You didn’t see me take the easy way out. And this is why our motto is “Putting an end to bad YouTube covers FOREVER!” Wow, the tangents tonight…

Moving on, this song is off of one of my favorite albums, “Everything To Everyone”. I do believe that it’s probably their fourth best album behind “Gordon”, “Barenaked Ladies Are Men” (the almost 30-track version), and “Maroon”. This album has some input from the other band members, which if you’ve read some of my past rants, means a lot to me in a band.

We do “Maybe Katie” a bit differently than the album’s version in the sense that the BNL version has some heavy electric guitars on the chorus and middle sections. Our version is completely acoustic and has more of a “folk” feel to it. That’s what happens when you don’t have a drummer handy…that isn’t already reserved to play the solo like I am.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s Laptop Session and I do hope that you’ll consider donating to the site, even if it’s just a few bucks. Thanks again and see you tomorrow!

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Barenaked Ladies Acoustic Rock Cover Songs and Free mp3 Downloads

The Barenaked Ladies is very likely one of the most versatile and talented band of musicians and songwriters in the new music scene today. They are composed of Ed Robertson, Steven Page, Jim Creegan, Kevin Hearn, and Tyler Stewart. Hailing from Canada, these five men have each had a hand in the songwriting process over the 20 years they have been a band. Additionally, each member is known for being a talented musician – even when unplugged, they have a polished sound that never sounds over-rehearsed yet never appears awkward. In fact, they are known for their improvisations, not only creating brand new music and songs while in the middle of concerts, but also switching up the words in such hits as “If I Had $1000000.” Barenaked Ladies has been more productive than any current band, producing new music such as two albums in 2007 and a children’s album in 2008. They initiated and continue to host a music blog at their official website. Music reviews have gone both directions for them over the years, often unfairly dismissing their material, but the numbers don’t lie – they have the distinction of having had a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. There have been and will continue to be many Laptop Sessions cover songs of their material.

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